1. Technical Field
The present invention relate to a uranium ion exchange adsorption method and, more particularly, to a uranium ion exchange adsorption method using ultrasound, in which ultrasound is applied to a slurry obtained by mixing uranium ions, sulfuric acid and an ion exchange resin while stirring the slurry, thereby improving an ion exchange adsorption rate of the uranium ion.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, uranium extracted from uranium ore through leaching is subjected to a refinement process through adsorption using an ion exchange resin. In this case, column type uranium leaching is generally performed.
In the column type uranium leaching, a uranium-leached solution is vertically placed in a reaction bath. To this end, a solid/liquid separation process must be performed to separate residues from the leached solution after leaching.
In recent years, as an approach to avoid problems of the column type uranium leaching, resin-in-pulp type uranium leaching was developed, in which a uranium rich slurry is prepared from uranium ore material through uranium leaching and is subjected to direct adsorption using an ion exchange resin, instead of indirectly absorbing uranium from the leached solution which is clear and enriched with uranium.
In this resin-in-pulp type uranium leaching, however, since uranium ion exchange adsorption is carried out by very slowly stirring the slurry including the uranium leached solution and the ion exchange resin for about a few dozen to hundreds of hours in the reaction bath to obtain suitable mixing of the slurry, the uranium ion exchange adsorption takes too much time, causing a very low adsorption rate.